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Some recent Discoveries of Millet (Panicum Miliaceum L. and Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.) at Excavations in Turkey and Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Mark Nesbitt  and
G. D. Summers
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Extract

Although a relatively unimportant crop in the Near East, millet has an especially interesting history that may throw some light on the cultural relationships of the Middle–Late Bronze Ages and the Iron Age. Thus the prompt, separate, publication of a large deposit of foxtail millet (Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.), recently identified from an Iron Age level at Tille Höyük, seems justified. This is the first find of the cereal in such large quantities—definitely as a crop—from the Near East or Greece. The rest of the plant remains from this level will be published in conjunction with the rich samples that are expected to be found in the massive Late Bronze Age burnt level at Tille. The opportunity is also taken in this paper to present other previously unpublished millet samples, from second millennium B.C. levels at Haftavan Tepe, northwestern Iran, and from Hellenistic, Roman and Medieval levels at Aşvan Kale, eastern Turkey.

A full discussion of these criteria will be included in the first author's forthcoming publication of the Aşvan plant remains. Knörzer (1971) has published a useful key to millet seeds. Three genera of millets (all belonging to the tribe Paniceae of the grass family) have grains of the relatively wide, large embryoed type discussed here.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 38 , December 1988 , pp. 85 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1988

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